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I heard a longer version from my dad a long time ago, too. According to Wikipedia the first log table was compiled by Briggs in 1617, and I suspect this joke dates to about fifteen minutes after that...Orodruin said:One of my professors told a much longer version of that one in class …
My professor’s version just included logs. A long winded story with Noah repeatedly returning to see how the animals were doing - no baby snakes. He asks the snakes if he can help them and they tell him he can cut down a couple of trees at the edge of the forest. Noah doesn’t want to pry into the personal affairs of snakes so he just does what they say and returns a week later. Sure enough, lots of baby snakes. Now Noah’s curiosity gets the better of him so he asks why the snakes needed him to cut down the trees, receiving the answer:Ibix said:I heard a longer version from my dad a long time ago, too. According to Wikipedia the first log table was compiled by Briggs in 1617, and I suspect this joke dates to about fifteen minutes after that...
That sounds like my dad's version, and it can be spun out indefinitely by describing Noah chatting with the animals. But in this version the snakes complain about a lack of privacy for... you know, and nowhere to raise the little ones. So Noah chops down a tree and builds them a small cabin and some furniture, and when he comes back the next time he's knee-deep in baby snakes because adders can multiply if they have log tables.Orodruin said:A long winded story with Noah repeatedly returning to see how the animals were doing - no baby snakes. He asks the snakes if he can help them
I got there in the endphinds said:I actually had to stop and think about this one
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Well, since phinds is, well, a dog, and he often sends the Mentors reports about misplaced homework threads (including Mentor fresh_42), my mind went somewhere else at first.phinds said:I actually had to stop and think about this one
Ît is far more likely that my goatberkeman said:Well, since phinds is, well, a dog, and he often sends the Mentors reports about misplaced homework threads (including Mentor fresh_42), my mind went somewhere else at first.
But I got there in the end too.![]()
McCoy: The bureaucratic mentality is the only constant in the universe. [ST-IV, The Voyage Home]DennisN said:
Huh?BillTre said:
Hillbilly gate latch and lock...Bystander said:Huh?
Alternative locking system.Bystander said:Huh?
But why is it funny? It makes perfect sense to me.BillTre said:Alternative locking system.
That's because your analytical mind goes straight to the topological considerations of the geometry...fresh_42 said:But why is it funny? It makes perfect sense to me.
And my second thought was that the shadows might harbor a joke, but I couldn't find one either.berkeman said:That's because your analytical mind goes straight to the topological considerations of the geometry...![]()
Okie dokie...Bystander said:"Next."
berkeman said:
"Snakes don't really die until sunset, but c'mon, guys, the HORSE stopped twitching three posts back..."fresh_42 said:
When the only tool you have is a hammer, all problems look like a nail. But when the only tool you have is a spanner it appears there's a bit of wiggle room in problem solving...BillTre said:
At risk of further flogging that dead horse, I actually spent a few minutes thinking about the answer to this. I have read (I think in The Naked Jape by Jimmy Carr and Lucy Greeves) that most humour seems to work on a "two stories" model. So even a groaner like "what do you do if you see a spaceman? Park in it, man!" has two stories - one about meeting an alien and one about parking a car - and the humour comes from being forced to re-evaluate which story you're looking at.fresh_42 said:But why is it funny? It makes perfect sense to me.