A math professor noticed his kitchen sink at home was leaking.
He called a plumber.
The plumber came the next day, tightened a couple of nuts, and the sink worked perfectly again. The professor was delighted. But when, a minute later, the plumber handed him the bill, he was shocked.
“This is a third of my monthly salary!”
“Yeah, I get it…” said the plumber. “Why don’t you come work for our company as a plumber? You’ll make three times more than you do as a professor. Just remember: when you apply, say you only finished seventh grade. They don’t like hiring educated people.”
So the professor got a job as a plumber, and his life really did improve. All he had to do was tighten a nut here and there every so often, and his salary was much higher.
One day, the management of the plumbing company decided that every plumber had to attend evening classes to finish eighth grade. So our professor had to go too.
By chance, the very first class was math.
The evening school teacher, wanting to check what the students knew, asked for the formula for the area of a circle.
They called the professor up to the board, and he suddenly realized he’d forgotten it. He started frantically reasoning it out, covering the board with integrals, differentials, and all sorts of fancy formulas to re-derive the result. In the end, he got:
S = –π r²
He didn’t like the minus sign, so he started again.
Again he got a minus. No matter what he did, it kept coming out negative.
He cast a panicked look at the class, and all the plumbers were whispering:
“Swap the limits of integration!”
Joke Poo: The Tech Support Savior
A seasoned programmer noticed his neighbor, a renowned brain surgeon, was having constant internet issues.
He offered to take a look.
The programmer spent an hour running diagnostics, tweaked some router settings, and the neighbor’s internet was blazing fast again. The surgeon was thrilled. But when, a minute later, the programmer handed him a bill for $500, the surgeon gasped.
“This is more than I charge for brain surgery!”
“Yeah, I get it…” said the programmer. “Why don’t you come work for our company’s tech support as a brain surgeon? You’ll make way more than you do now. Just remember: when you apply, say you only finished ninth grade. They don’t like hiring smart people.”
So the surgeon took a job in IT support and, amazingly, his life improved. All he had to do was click “restart” or Google for a resolution every so often, and his salary was much higher.
One day, the management of the IT company decided that every tech support worker had to attend a mandatory course on Network Security. So our surgeon had to go too.
By chance, the very first lesson involved firewalls.
The instructor, wanting to check what the students knew, asked what the best way to ensure data security was.
They called the surgeon up to the board, and he suddenly realized he had no idea. He started frantically brainstorming, drawing detailed diagrams of the brain, theorizing about the flow of electrical impulses and potential vulnerabilities in neuronal networks, relating it all to packets, protocols, and security breaches. He filled the board with complex neurological pathways, but nothing made sense in the context of network security.
He kept ending up with bizarre concepts like “prefrontal cortex authentication” and “amygdala-based threat detection.”
He cast a panicked look at the class, and all the other IT support workers were whispering:
“Have you tried turning it off and on again?”
Alright, let’s analyze this plumber/professor joke.
Key Elements:
- Juxtaposition: The core humor comes from contrasting the highly intellectual (math professor) with the seemingly mundane (plumber).
- Irony: The professor, used to complex problem-solving, is initially stumped by a simple plumbing issue, then relies on that higher learning to try and re-derive a basic formula.
- Economic Critique: A subtle commentary exists on the perceived (and sometimes real) disparities in compensation between skilled trades and academic professions.
- The Punchline: The punchline highlights the plumber’s practical, albeit imperfect, understanding of mathematics (integration) acquired through experience rather than formal education. The humor hinges on the plumbers knowing to “swap the limits of integration” – a shortcut that fixes the sign but might not reflect a complete understanding of the underlying math.
Now, let’s create a new humorous piece inspired by these elements, focusing on a “Did You Know?” factoid that leads to a joke:
Did You Know? The mathematical constant Pi (π) is an irrational number, meaning its decimal representation never ends or repeats. We use approximations like 3.14 or 22/7 for practical calculations, but the true value goes on forever. In fact, Google employee Emma Haruka Iwao calculated Pi to 31.4 trillion digits.
New Joke:
So, you’ve got Emma Iwao at Google, cranking out trillions of digits of Pi. I heard they asked her to consult on a plumbing project at the office, figuring her Pi knowledge would be useful for calculating pipe circumferences or something.
She spent weeks deriving the perfect pipe angle to maximize water flow, running simulations and accounting for every possible variable.
The head of facilities checked in, “How’s it coming, Emma?”
Emma, looking frazzled, points to the blueprint covered in equations: “I’ve got the optimal angle calculated to 31.4 trillion digits of Pi! The water pressure will be phenomenal!”
The facilities guy scratches his head. “That’s great, but Bob down in maintenance just bent a pipe a little bit by hand, and it seems to be working fine.”
“Oh,” Emma replied. “Well, in that case: Swap the limits of integration!”
Why this works:
- It builds on the original joke’s theme of contrasting complex calculations with simple, practical solutions.
- It uses a real fact about Pi and a recent feat of calculation.
- The facilities guy becomes an average plumber by relying on a practical skill to get things done.
- The punchline is the same, retaining the core gag while giving it a new context.
- It’s a slightly more updated take with an employee at Google.