Sometimes I try to write songs, and while I have about a third of the wordplay that Elvis Costello does, which is decent by any measure, unlike him i’m either not playing with phrases at all or too clever for my own good.
For instance, I wrote a theme album about a reporter who was investigating the alleged abuse of a girl called Elizabeth O’Reilly, and in this section she was having second thoughts about her investigation and her motivations (for instance, some people diminish themselves by thinking that they’re only in it for the fame or money when they’re really not) :
Lord pray that my music will be good
And this O’Reilly book will get me food
star A S T star star, star star A N D
It’s only teenage emulation
To fully understand this passage, you need to know that Epic poets often prayed to the gods, that O’Reilly is a publisher of computer books (as well as a character in my story!), that * is a substitution character in regular expressions, that The Waste Land is an epic poem that some see sexual abuse themes in, that the song Baba O’Riley is a song by the Who that contains the phrase “Teenage Wasteland”, and that emulation is something computers can do that is vaguely like regular expressions symbolically (so the singer of this song is wondering if she is just emo-ing out or really feeling genuine sadness by relating her writing to emulation and regular expressions.)
But the most obscure joke in the verse is when I had to add another two stars to " * A S T * * A N D " and made it " * A S T * * * * A N D " in order to fit the meter. Some might look at it and vaguely realize that stars are placeholders for other letters and think that I incorrectly added stars to fit the meter. But they might not know that in many regular expression formats, * does not mean “one or more characters” but rather “ZERO or more characters”, so AST***AND does fit “wasteland”.
This fits the OP entirely, in that this will not be funny to very many people, but I am inordinately proud of it.
I wear this shirt sometimes, and only one person has laughed without asking what solipsistic means. I need to find me some cute geologists who’ll get this one too.
\Erdos-Bacon tangent My boss was an extra in the movie Grease, and I dated Erdos’s grand-nephew. Which means now that we’ve met my boss is a 3-2 and I am a 2-3. /Tangent
ETA: The wiki defines the Erdos in terms of authoring mathematical papers, rather than discussion or argument. Hmmm. On that we don’t qualify. We have had protacted mathematical arguments though - the first manufactured specifically to meet the requirements as we understood them. . .
In December, you’re watching a college football game on TV. The camera shows 4 men in the stands dressed as Santa Claus. One is holding a sign with the Greek letters Sigma Nu.
[Dave Barry]I didn’t say it was a good joke.[/Dave Barry] At least this joke requires knowledge in two areas: chemistry and mythology. The other joke I posted only requires knowledge in one area. :smack:
The bass line in the Bach piece is just like the intro to Purple Haze, where it goes D-D (octave higher)-D-D (octave higher) at roughly the same tempo.
“I keep trying to dissolve my tantalum pentoxide in a basic hydroxide solution but every time I put the tantalum in, the hydroxide keeps disappearing.”
Agent Bork: Chief, you know that guy whose camper they were whacking off in? Agent Fleming: Bork, you’re a Federal Agent. You represent the United States government. Never end a sentence with a preposition.
Stolen from this forum:
I am reminded of a article James Lileks wrote for the Minneapolis-St Paul Star-Tribune some years ago. The article is gone from the newspaper’s website but I just happen to have the relevant bit here…
At least this joke requires knowledge in two areas: chemistry and mythology. The other joke I posted only requires knowledge in one area. :smack: