Explain SMBC — the wiki for Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

mathematicians

2019-10-14 View on smbc-comics.com → 1 revision
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mathematicians
Votey panel for mathematicians
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Explanation

The Joke

The comic is titled "Mathematicians Are Weird." In the first panel, a person (depicted resembling a historical mathematician, possibly Leibniz or Newton given the period attire) excitedly says, "You know that thing that has 2 stories?" Someone responds "Yes." In the next panel, the mathematician announces: "He got it. He got 2 stories." The final panel shows a crowd reaction labeled with a thunderous applause sound effect.

The joke is about how mathematicians get wildly excited about confirming things that are already obvious or trivially true. The mathematician is apparently thrilled that someone verified a building (or structure) has 2 stories -- something that was already known. The crowd goes wild over this "achievement" of confirming a known quantity, satirizing how mathematical proofs can sometimes involve enormous effort to rigorously prove something that seems self-evident.

The Humor

The humor lies in the absurd mismatch between the triviality of the statement and the thunderous crowd reaction. The comic parodies the culture of mathematics where formally proving something -- even something everyone already assumed to be true -- is treated as a major accomplishment worthy of celebration. It also plays on the stereotype that mathematicians are "weird" because they get genuinely excited about things that seem pointless or obvious to everyone else.

View History (1) Original Comic