Clever Jokes: (Could some of you explain some of them to me)

[buddha_david]

Psychic #1: “I had some trouble with my Clairvoyance Training last night.”
Psychic #2: “I see what you mean.”

@Blaster_Master

13.) What’s the difference between an etymologist and an entomologist?… An etymologist knows the difference.

This joke doesn’t really work because an etymologist studies the origins of words, as opposed to their definitions. (Or is that the joke?)

@Blaster_Master

15.) There are two types of people in this world:… Those who can extrapolate from incomplete data.

Basically a variant on: “There are two types of people in the world: those who trail off before completing a sentence, and…”

[Yllaria]

@buddha_david

This joke doesn’t really work because an etymologist studies the origins of words, as opposed to their definitions. . . .

It’s not the origins of words so much as their history. The etymology of a word includes the series of permutations the word went through from the earliest known use up to the present including the definition or usage of each permutation. So an etymologist would very much know the current definitions of both words. The present definition of a word is part of its history.

Try looking up the word ‘nice’ in the OED to see a long list of changing definitions.

@Jackknifed_Juggernaut

Chuck Knoblaugh was a star 2nd Baseman for the New York Yankees in the late '90’s, when he developed a case of the “yips”. . . . .

Yips? You forced me to look that one up.

[Little_Nemo]

@dougie_monty

Astrologers try to divide people into * twelve * groups; that, of course, is hardly the worst part of it.

There are thirteen kinds of people in the world: those who believe in astrology and those who don’t.

[AppallingGael]

@Malacandra

As White, Fischer was proverbially a “pawn to King four” player - that is, whenever he had first move, he always played the same one. In short algebraic notation that’s just written as “1. e4”. It actually caused quite a stir when he played pawn to Queen four (1. d4) against Spassky in their world championship match.

@Jackknifed_Juggernaut

Chuck Knoblaugh was a star 2nd Baseman for the New York Yankees in the late '90’s, when he developed a case of the “yips”. For some reason, he couldn’t complete the simple task of throwing the ball to the 1st Baseman after fielding a ball. As a result, he was saddled with countless errors. e4 is the notation on a baseball scorecard for an error by a 2nd Baseman. e stands for error and 4 is the position of the 2nd Baseman.

And collectively, the SDMB gets the joke. Success!

[Malacandra]

@AppallingGael

And collectively, the SDMB gets the joke. Success!

You can definitely file that under “Jokes you will probably have to explain” since you need to know your chess and your baseball to get it…!

[flight]

@Shodan

There are 10 types of people in the world - those who understand binary, and those who don’t.

Regards,
Shodan

There are 10 types of people in the world - those who understand hex and F the rest.

[Peter_Morris]

Why did August Ferdinand Möbius cross the road?

to get to the same side.

[JKellyMap]

@Peter_Morris

Why did August Ferdinand Möbius cross the road?

to get to the same side.

I’ve heard that as “'Why did the chicken cross the Möbius strip?”

[njtt]

@Isilder

Probably… Or most obviously. It might be that the logicians have some pre-arranged rules that they are following , ala other puzzles which feature three logicians making deductions based upon the other doing something, or failing to do something…

Anything is possible. They might be aliens discussing football in a language that just happens to sound like English, but where the words all have quite different meanings. :rolleyes:

@Isilder

When you realise its a close, its not that funny. There is no actual joke. Its perfectly mundane answering.

Yes, it is not really a joke, it is a logic puzzle. (Although hardly “mundane answering”. No-one, not even logicians, would really behave that way.)

[bizerta]

@Twoflower

Would getting the Batman joke require being old enough to remember 60s TV show theme songs?

The Batman joke reminds me of a trivia question that a local radio station posed about 20 years ago, to wit: “What’s the first thing you know?”. Listeners called in their guesses for three or four days before someone finally came up with the correct answer. So think before you click the spoiler. Hint: it’s a joke as well as a trivia question. So, what’s the first thing you know?

Old Jed’s a millionaire.

[Andy_L]

@bizerta

The Batman joke reminds me of a trivia question that a local radio station posed about 20 years ago, to wit: “What’s the first thing you know?”. Listeners called in their guesses for three or four days before someone finally came up with the correct answer. So think before you click the spoiler. Hint: it’s a joke as well as a trivia question. So, what’s the first thing you know?

Old Jed’s a millionaire.

That made me smile.