# Explain this joke to me, please. Robots aren't very emotive. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 28, 2018, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-this-joke-to-me-please-robots-arent-very-emotive/822141 "2018-09-28T22:15:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2018, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-this-joke-to-me-please-robots-arent-very-emotive/822141/1 "2018-09-28T22:15:13Z")
This is from a calendar of funny student responses. Many are clearly fake(written by the calendar makers), but most are understandable. Many are puns or overly literal answers. [What is the joke on this one?](https://imgur.com/rXGEaXc) The Q: What is a fugue? The A: Robots aren’t very emotive, with a pic of a robot. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2018, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-this-joke-to-me-please-robots-arent-very-emotive/822141/2 "2018-09-28T23:32:43Z")
I cant’t think of any words that sound or are spelled like “fugue” that would be confused for a word in robotics, so I think that it’s just a case of a student who envisioned himself as a robot in a fugue, and wrote the response in a matter-of-factual way about how he was feeling. I presume that whoever put the calendar together included it either because it had a drawing or because it appealed to them as surreal humor. Though, certainly I may be missing something obvious. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2018, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-this-joke-to-me-please-robots-arent-very-emotive/822141/3 "2018-09-28T23:47:05Z")
I don’t get it either and I tried. It may just be a nonsense joke but not a very good one. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2018, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-this-joke-to-me-please-robots-arent-very-emotive/822141/4 "2018-09-28T23:51:23Z")
IDK, but in psychology a fugue can be a loss of identity. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2018, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-this-joke-to-me-please-robots-arent-very-emotive/822141/5 "2018-09-29T00:22:20Z")
I’ll answer this after I get the soap off my radio. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2018, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-this-joke-to-me-please-robots-arent-very-emotive/822141/6 "2018-09-29T06:37:53Z")
That’s my take as well. ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2018, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-this-joke-to-me-please-robots-arent-very-emotive/822141/7 "2018-09-29T06:46:40Z")
Three options - 1. A non-sequiter? And not a particularly dazzling one either, 2. A calendar maker who gave a dud remark the benefit of the doubt. 3. The robot looks vaguely like the acting robot [Calculon](http://futurama.wikia.com/wiki/Calculon)from Futurama, whose problem is not a lack of emotion, but rather an over-abundance in his acting [think of him as a metal Tobias Funcke]. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2018, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-this-joke-to-me-please-robots-arent-very-emotive/822141/8 "2018-09-29T12:10:39Z")
In the context of students’ writing weird stuff on exams, I think that this is … something weird a student wrote on an exam. The weirdness of it all is the humor. ---
**Author:** ![Civil\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d78d45/32.png) [@Civil\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Civil_Guy)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2018, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-this-joke-to-me-please-robots-arent-very-emotive/822141/9 "2018-09-29T15:22:55Z")
Yeah. That some schmuck spent even so much time as he/she did to write down such a response – it demonstrates a profound mindlessness, it does. ---
**Author:** ![Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/channing_idaho_banks/32/250_2.png) [@Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Channing_Idaho_Banks)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2018, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-this-joke-to-me-please-robots-arent-very-emotive/822141/10 "2018-09-29T18:05:05Z")
See the thread about comedians riding their own material. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2018, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-this-joke-to-me-please-robots-arent-very-emotive/822141/11 "2018-09-29T21:41:33Z")
> [@Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](#): > > See the thread about comedians riding their own material. Yeah. They should get out and walk. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2018, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-this-joke-to-me-please-robots-arent-very-emotive/822141/12 "2018-09-29T22:59:02Z")
> [@Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](#): > > See the thread about comedians riding their own material. Sometimes into the ground! ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2018, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-this-joke-to-me-please-robots-arent-very-emotive/822141/13 "2018-09-29T23:11:03Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > > [@Channing Idaho Banks](#): > > > > See the thread about comedians riding their own material. > > Sometimes into the ground! Well, sure; otherwise, they’re flying. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2018, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-this-joke-to-me-please-robots-arent-very-emotive/822141/14 "2018-09-30T01:22:43Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > Well, sure; otherwise, they’re flying. And, boy, are their arms tired! ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2018, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-this-joke-to-me-please-robots-arent-very-emotive/822141/15 "2018-09-30T02:04:45Z")
_“I just flew in from New York… and boy, is that joke tired.”_ I wrote that when I was about 12 years old. I don’t know if KidzTheezDayz would even get it but I figured the fogies here will. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2018, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-this-joke-to-me-please-robots-arent-very-emotive/822141/16 "2018-10-01T11:18:32Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > I cant’t think of any words that sound or are spelled like “fugue” that would be confused for a word in robotics, so I think that it’s just a case of a student who envisioned himself as a robot in a fugue, and wrote the response in a matter-of-factual way about how he was feeling. I don’t get it either, but I have heard people talk about ‘fugue states’ in the context of computing - as analogy to the psychological phenomenon of the same name - I think they were describing unpredicted or seemingly-aimless behaviour of a system arising from poorly-written code (e.g. conditional tests that don’t test for all possible states, allowing execution to ‘fall through’, or where the thing being tested is changed by the thing testing it, resulting in meandering execution)