theorem
Original: theorem on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Title: A THEOREM:
List all math jokes in order of length.
Assume there is a largest math joke, L.
Create a new math joke J by appending to L that joke about the pirate who has a wheel on his crotch that is "drivin' me nuts!"
J is now larger than L, which is a contradiction.
Therefore the set of math jokes is infinite.
Now,
Assume a good math joke, M.
If M is a good joke, then it is funny.
If a joke is funny then everyone will know it.
If everyone knows a joke, the joke will not be funny.
If a joke is not funny, then it is not a good joke.
Therefore, if M is a good joke, M is not a good joke.
By contradiction, there are no good math jokes.
Therefore:
There are infinitely many math jokes and none of them are good.
QED
Votey:
It follows trivially that writing jokes for a living is a bullshit job.
List all math jokes in order of length.
Assume there is a largest math joke, L.
Create a new math joke J by appending to L that joke about the pirate who has a wheel on his crotch that is "drivin' me nuts!"
J is now larger than L, which is a contradiction.
Therefore the set of math jokes is infinite.
Now,
Assume a good math joke, M.
If M is a good joke, then it is funny.
If a joke is funny then everyone will know it.
If everyone knows a joke, the joke will not be funny.
If a joke is not funny, then it is not a good joke.
Therefore, if M is a good joke, M is not a good joke.
By contradiction, there are no good math jokes.
Therefore:
There are infinitely many math jokes and none of them are good.
QED
Votey:
It follows trivially that writing jokes for a living is a bullshit job.
Alt text
A single panel formatted like a hand-lettered mathematical proof titled "A THEOREM:". It reads: List all math jokes in order of length. Assume there is a largest math joke, L. Create a new math joke J by appending to L that joke about the pirate who has a wheel on his crotch that is "drivin' me nuts!" J is now larger than L, which is a contradiction. Therefore the set of math jokes is infinite. Then: Assume a good math joke, M. If M is a good joke, then it is funny. If a joke is funny then everyone will know it. If everyone knows a joke, the joke will not be funny. If a joke is not funny, then it is not a good joke. Therefore, if M is a good joke, M is not a good joke. By contradiction, there are no good math jokes. Therefore: There are infinitely many math jokes and none of them are good. QED. The joke is a mock proof using the infinitude-of-primes/diagonalization style of argument to conclude that math jokes are infinite yet none are funny. Votey (aftercomic): a single boxed line of text reading "It follows trivially that writing jokes for a living is a bullshit job."
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.