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From: gray@ghiggins.lb.hp.co.UK (Graham Higgins)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.digest
Subject: Two Logician Jokes
Message-ID: <19878.8710191108@hplb.lb.hp.co.uk>
Date: Mon, 19-Oct-87 06:14:16 EDT
Article-I.D.: hplb.19878.8710191108
Posted: Mon Oct 19 06:14:16 1987
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That's a shame. Why does there have to be a concrete catalogue? It prohibits a
variation which is arguably funnier ... can I change it around bit ?? ....


I was hanging out at the Logicians Union Hall the other day and the place
was full of logicians, poring over logician's manuals and exchanging
gossip.  Well, every so often, one of them would call out a number, and all
of the others would laugh real hard.  Then they'd all go back to whatever
they were doing.

This seemed real odd behavior for such logical people.  So I asked Robert,
who's a logician friend of mine there, what was going on.

"Hey, this is a hall for logicians," he said.  "A while back, we collected
all of the jokes that we could prove were funny and allocated each one a
number. Everybody here knows them.  Now when somebody wants to tell a joke,
they just call out its number."

I thought about this for a while.  Then I asked Robert if I could tell a joke,
you know, try out the system. He said it would be OK by him, so I called out a
number: "1209!"

Nobody laughed.

I turned to Robert and said "So how come they didn't laugh?"

He shrugged.  "You didn't tell it right."

I asked for another try. Once more, Robert said it would be OK by him. I called
out a different number: "83417!".

Everybody collapsed in fits of mirth.

I turned to Robert, feeling pleased. "Told _that_ one OK, didn't I?", I said.

Robert was nearly helpless with laughter. He gasped, in between guffaws,
"Haven't heard that one before".