# Funnest XKCD cartoon Evah! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 19, 2009, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funnest-xkcd-cartoon-evah/500325 "2009-06-19T19:35:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funnest-xkcd-cartoon-evah/500325/1 "2009-06-19T19:35:20Z")
[Apocalypse](http://xkcd.com/599/) [A[sup]2[/sup]](http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/apocalypse.png) [A[sup]n[/sup]](http://xkcd.com/) ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funnest-xkcd-cartoon-evah/500325/2 "2009-06-19T19:38:46Z")
I was kind of hoping someone would explain this one. I get it that Erdos was an itinerant mathematician who worked with a lot of collaborators, but that doesn’t make the comic click for me. I think I’m missing something. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funnest-xkcd-cartoon-evah/500325/3 "2009-06-19T19:38:47Z")
I don’t get it. ---
**Author:** ![lalenin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@lalenin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lalenin)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funnest-xkcd-cartoon-evah/500325/4 "2009-06-19T19:40:53Z")
I’ll let someone else explain. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funnest-xkcd-cartoon-evah/500325/5 "2009-06-19T19:41:29Z")
I think the idea is to get your name on a published paper with this other person. The mouse over implies that will connect you to just about everyone famous in the math world. I think. ---
**Author:** ![mr.jp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/48db29/32.png) [@mr.jp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mr.jp)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funnest-xkcd-cartoon-evah/500325/6 "2009-06-19T19:41:55Z")
> **[Erdős–Bacon number](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erdos_Bacon_number)** > > A person's Erdős–Bacon number is the sum of one's Erdős number—which measures the "collaborative distance" in authoring academic papers between that person and Hungarian mathematician Paul Erdős—and one's Bacon number—which represents the number of links, through roles in films, by which the person is separated from American actor Kevin Bacon. The lower the number, the closer a person is to Erdős and Bacon, which reflects a small world phenomenon in academia and entertainment. > To have a defined ... ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funnest-xkcd-cartoon-evah/500325/7 "2009-06-19T19:42:56Z")
I _get_ it, I just don’t think it’s funny. Maybe if I were a math geek. Erdos worked with a lot of people, like **Finagle** said, to the point where there are Web sites mathematicians can use to calculate their Erdos number. It’s the equivalent of a Kevin Bacon number for the rest of us, which is referred to in the caption. The people in the comic want to make their Edos numbers 1 (meaning they’ve worked directly with him) before they die. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funnest-xkcd-cartoon-evah/500325/8 "2009-06-19T19:44:07Z")
I thought the joke was not that they want to get an Erdos number of 1 before they die; more that now that he was alive again, they got to make up for not getting it earlier. Subtle difference, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funnest-xkcd-cartoon-evah/500325/9 "2009-06-19T19:49:13Z")
This is a “Six-degrees of Kevin Bacon” game for mathematicians. Paul Erdos was a rather prolific mathematician who co-authored a lot of papers. Anyone who co-authored a paper with Erdos gets an Erdos number of 1. Anyone who co-authored a paper with a co-author of Erdos gets an Erdos number of 2. Anyone who co-authored a paper with a co-author of - well, you get the picture. Newly-minted mathematicians can only hope to get an Erdos number of 2, unless Erdos himself rises from the grave to co-author a paper with them. (My Erdos number is 4 [possibly 3], despite not even being a mathematician.) More at you-know-where: [Erdős number - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erdos_number) ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funnest-xkcd-cartoon-evah/500325/10 "2009-06-19T19:54:30Z")
> [@Smeghead](#): > > I thought the joke was not that they want to get an Erdos number of 1 before they die; more that now that he was alive again, they got to make up for not getting it earlier. Subtle difference, I guess. That works better. Although they do expect to get apocalypt-ed. ---
**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:** [June 19, 2009, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funnest-xkcd-cartoon-evah/500325/11 "2009-06-19T21:02:15Z")
Note that being dead does not stop anyone from being listed as a co-author on a paper. Erdos in particular proposed a huge number of theorems which is why he is listed as co-author when someone else completes the proof. So presumably there are still people who are obtaining an Erdos number of 1. FtG: Erdos number 3. ---
**Author:** ![MilTan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@MilTan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MilTan)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funnest-xkcd-cartoon-evah/500325/12 "2009-06-19T21:48:07Z")
Bah, you’ve got me beat, **ftg** , mine is 4. ---
**Author:** ![Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e480ec/32.png) [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Least_Original_User_Name_Ever)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funnest-xkcd-cartoon-evah/500325/13 "2009-06-19T22:02:41Z")
Bad. Didn’t mean to threadshit. But I don’t find him very funny. Clever, yes, but not normally funny. ---
**Author:** ![iftheresaway](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ecae2f/32.png) [@iftheresaway](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iftheresaway)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funnest-xkcd-cartoon-evah/500325/14 "2009-06-19T22:58:00Z")
_The Man Who Loved Only Number_s is a (in my opinion, of course) very good biography of Erdos for the non-mathematical. (I want an Erdos number, but am not cool enough, or well-connected enough, to have one.) ---
**Author:** ![stargazer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eb8c5e/32.png) [@stargazer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stargazer)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funnest-xkcd-cartoon-evah/500325/15 "2009-06-19T23:04:14Z")
I had to go look it up, too, and I think it might also reference this, from the Wikipedia articles on [Paul Erdos](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Erd%C5%91s) and the Erdos Number: > [@](#): > > It is jokingly said that Baseball Hall of Famer Hank Aaron has an Erdős number of 1 because they both autographed the same baseball when Emory University awarded them honorary degrees on the same day. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funnest-xkcd-cartoon-evah/500325/16 "2009-06-20T00:58:33Z")
I think I’m a 6, but them, I’m a physicist, not a mathematician. Physicists, I think, tend to find our Einstein number and then add two, rather than looking for a shorter path. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funnest-xkcd-cartoon-evah/500325/17 "2009-06-20T01:19:29Z")
So, if my last Connection to Mathematics was an algebra class in High School (oh, and I figured out the volume of an egg the other day)… is my Erdos number 37? What do you think The Average Person’s number is? ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funnest-xkcd-cartoon-evah/500325/18 "2009-06-20T02:59:15Z")
> [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](#): > > Bad. Didn’t mean to threadshit. > > But I don’t find him very funny. Clever, yes, but not normally funny. It wasn’t Randall Munroe, the xkcd guy, who said this, but I can’t remember who. The fewer the people that will get a joke, the funnier it is to those who get it. It’s like concentrating the funny. The people who got the strip without needing an explanation must have laughed their asses off, while everyone else went “Meh.” ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funnest-xkcd-cartoon-evah/500325/19 "2009-06-20T03:03:08Z")
> [@Bosstone](#): > > It wasn’t Randall Munroe, the xkcd guy, who said this, but I can’t remember who. The fewer the people that will get a joke, the funnier it is to those who get it. It’s like concentrating the funny. The people who got the strip without needing an explanation must have laughed their asses off, while everyone else went “Meh.” By that rationale, “You must be a gay fish” is like the least funny joke ever. Kanye not getting it is probably the most its got going for it. ---
**Author:** ![QuercusMax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/8baadc/32.png) [@QuercusMax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuercusMax)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funnest-xkcd-cartoon-evah/500325/20 "2009-06-20T03:25:26Z")
I thought it was pretty funny, in a dry sort of way. (Much like much of xkcd) I just calculated my Erdos number, which is at most 5. I only have one publication, but it’s in CS, which is very closely connected to math. My MS advisor (co-author on my publication) has a number \<=4, and he’s a coauthor with someone in the MathSciNet database. I’ve got a Bacon number of 4 - I have a relative who’s worked on a lot of movies, and her number is at most 3. (If you can count non-actors in Bacon numbers. She’s an art director.) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funnest-xkcd-cartoon-evah/500325.md?page=2)