You could also mention white mice.
I don’t consider myself to be a geek, but I often work with those who would be considered geeks. And I’ve also often wondered about the attachment they have to 42, Ni and other Monty Python references, and science-fiction TV shows. But if it makes them happy, more power to them.
Some years ago, while in the lunchroom at work, a few of them were discussing their favourite science-fiction TV shows. The discussion became rather heated, and in an effort to inject a little humour into the situation, I said in my best TV sports announcer voice, “And at the half, it’s Babylon Five, Deep Space Nine. With Deep Space leading, Babylon is going to have some catching up to do in the second half.”
Silence and many puzzled looks from them. Finally one said what they all must have been thinking: “I don’t get it.”
I’ve avoided joking with geeks ever since.
It’s basically a reference to a common experience. That’s what makes it funny. It’s also a good way to find out who you have a lot in common with.
The funny thing is, though, you can learn to respond to these things without having read or watched the source material. For instance, I know that the meaning of life is 42, but I’ve never read Douglas Adams (and I think that’s where it’s from). I will, however, giggle when someone defines the meaning of life that way (mostly 'cause it reminds me of the SDMB, but that’s a whole 'nother story).
Plus, you know, it’s funny. :).
I don’t consider myself a geek either, but “Ni!” is my default beep in Windows and I’ll never tire of it.
The OP gives much food for thought, there are so many jokes I never tire of. A recent Pit thread admonished those who always ask how much time is left in the hockey period when there’s 1:04 left on the clock. Guilty as sin.
Getting together with old friends is a National Lampoon-Eddie Murphy-Onion-fest liberally peppered with any number of oblique references to the same two-dozen or so films. Outsiders are hopelessly lost in the conversations we have.
But I’m not a geek, and don’t call me Shirley.
Surreal is singling out Monty Python and sci-fi fans, but really, why?
Almost EVERYBODY has a certain set of in-jokes that he shares solely with a close circle of friends. It’s a safe bet that Surreal and friends have their own set of buzzwords and catchphrases that always make them laugh, even if nobody around them would grasp what’s so funny.
<shrug> Some people just can’t tell a joke. But…
THAT worries me. That’s been a standard joke among media SF fans for roughly five years.
If it were merely repeated, it wouldn’t be funny. It would still serve as an identification. But where references are intended as humor is when they are applied to a situation different from their source.
Saying “ni” doesn’t make me laugh, but if I get in a good barb when talking with friends, I may say “Now go away or I shall taunt you a second time”. That would be funny. once.
Referential humor is a way of encoding a message for the other priviledged few who get it. It’s a word game. My preferred method is to target a reference to one listener (not the person I’m directly addressing) and fit it in naturally into the conversation. Making that one person crack up because of an association they made in their own head while everyone else just looks at them like they’re loony is great. Especially if I can keep a straight face.
OK, correct me if I’m wrong (it’s been awhile since I read the books) but…
42 isn’t the meaning of life, it’s the answer.
The answer to what?
That’s the rub - it’s the answer to the question they forgot, which is why they had to rebuild earth - so they can rediscover the question - yes?
Whenever people cite 42 as the meaning of life, the universe, and everything, I tell them Douglas Adams was an Illuminati agent trying to distract us from the power of 23.
Then they stare blankly, their geekdom trumped by my übergeekdom.
Only a Herbert would start a thread like this.
[sub]ni![/sub]
Finagle- “That’s sort of like asking if certain posters ever get tired of asking inane questions on message boards. Apparently the answer is “no.””
It’s also like asking the people who are annoyed by such posters if they have the intellectual capacity to use their ‘ignore user’ feature.
Apparently the answer is “no.”
Quoting Simpsons trumps any other so you would actually just be cool.
I too fit both, except I steadfastly refuse to do the “Nee” schtick. I tend to the stick to: (grossly paraphrased)
“You shall not have died in vain!”
“Actually, I’m still alive”
“You shall not have been mortally wounded in vain!”
“Actually I’m feeling quite well”
“Yea what did the Romans ever do for us?!!”
“Well they did give us roads”
“What have the Romans done for us besides give us roads?!!”
“Aqueducts”
“Well what have the Romans done fus besides give us roads and aqueducts!?!?”
“Healthcare”…
As said by the very silly candidate Malcolm Peter Brian Telescope Adrian Blackpool Rock Stoatgobbler John Raw Vegetable Brrroooo Norman Michael ding ding tweeeeeeeeeet Edward hoooonk chugada chugada chugada Bzzzzzzz Thomas Moo “We’ll keep a welcome in the…” BLAM! William whobedee whoo “Raindrops keep falling on my” gaaaalaaa “Don’t sleep in the subway” cuckoo cuckoo Naaoooo Smith who is right now lying in a slab of concrete.
Can I just say that’s the first time I’ve typed that name out?
No I’m sorry there isn’t time.
What if I tell you that you’re simply spiralling coils of self-replicating DNA-nay-nay-nay…?
What, the one’s that squeak “The Bells of Saint Mary’s”?
Pfft. Amateurs. Be a real geek and make your computer scream "I DON’T LIKE SPAM!" whenever you get e-mail.
See, friends & neighbors, THAT’s what it’s all about. You’re a geek if ANYTHING can remind you of your particular fanaticism.
Me, I never got full-immersion into Star Trek/Star Wars/Babylon 5. They’re just some interesting stories (at best). But I will skewer with prejudice anyone who sees “Holy Grail” twice, tosses a “Ni!” into a conversation and thereafter considers himself a Python geek. No, sorry, go home. Come back and talk to me once you’ve seen every movie[sup]1[/sup], watched every episode of “Flying Circus”[sup]2[/sup], listened to all the albums[sup]3[/sup], can sing the entire Songbook[sup]4[/sup], and memorized “All the Words”[sup]5[/sup].
You think your “Ni!“s can stand up to my full recitation of the Travel Agent’s sketch? WITH all the 'c’s replced with 'b’s…?
[sub]”…barted around in buses, surrounded by sweaty, mindless oafs from Kettering and Boventry, with their bloth baps and their bardigans and their transistor radios, bomplaining about the tea…”[/sub]
YOU’ve got your knowledge of the batting averages of the entire roster of the '68 Astros. I’ve got my enormous fount of humor that will always be brilliantly funny.
[list=1]
[li]“Pray that there’s intelligent life somwhere up in space, 'cause…” why?[/li][li]How were the blancmanges going to take over earth?[/li][li]What did the firm of Mousebat, Follicle, Goose-Creature, Ampersand, Spong, Wapp-Caplet, Looseliver, Vendetta and Prang do?[/li][li]Who’s got bigger tit’s than Cher?[/li]Finish it: Johann Gambolputty-_________[/list=1]
I can’t get through the day without George Carlin saying: “There’s a LETTER in your MAILBOX!” when e-mail arrives.
Of course the actual context of the sample is known to a select few.
To answer the OP, yes. Monty Python was tired by the end of high school.
Yes. You win $23.99 
And the answer is none. None more black.
The topic and postings for this thread makes me wonder, “What do non-geeky people think is funny?”