- HOME
- INTRO TO THE FORUM
- BADLY WRITTEN, BADLY SPOKEN
- GETTING
TO KNOW ENGLISH - PREPARING FOR ENGLISH PROFICIENCY TESTS
- GOING DEEPER INTO ENGLISH
- YOU ASKED ME THIS QUESTION
- EDUCATION AND TEACHING FORUM
- ADVICE AND DISSENT
- MY MEDIA ENGLISH WATCH
- STUDENTS' SOUNDING BOARD
- LANGUAGE HUMOR AT ITS FINEST
- THE LOUNGE
- NOTABLE WORKS BY OUR VERY OWN
- ESSAYS BY JOSE CARILLO
- ABOUT JOSE CARILLO
- READINGS ABOUT LANGUAGE
- TIME OUT FROM ENGLISH GRAMMAR
- NEWS AND COMMENTARY
- BOOKSHOP
- ARCHIVES
LANGUAGE HUMOR AT ITS FINEST
Making yourself more proficient in English need not be a drag. You can actually speed up the learning process and make it fun by generously lacing it with humor—but preferably the best that the English language can offer.
In this new section, apart from giving a fixed slot to our weekly “In a Lighter Vein” pop-out humor piece in the Forum homepage, we have put together the finest of those weekly humor pop-ups since the Forum started. The best of them—collected from various sources on the web and sent in by friends—are all here, posted in the Forum under the following headings: Wordplay, On the Job, Student and School Life, and Miscellany.
So if you missed any of the best of the Forum’s weekly humor pop-ups, you can enjoy and savor them again and again here—and better still, share them with your friends!
Click here to go to the board (requires registration to post)
The Scientists' Party
(Author unknown)
Top scientists were invited to a party, and they all replied stating whether or not they could attend...
- Ampere was worried he wasn’t current.
- Audobon1 said he’d have to wing it.
- Boyle said he was under too much pressure.
- Darwin waited to see what evolved.
- Descartes said he’d think about it.
- Dr. Jekyll declined—he hadn’t been feeling himself lately.
- Edison thought it would be illuminating.
- Einstein thought it would be relatively easy to attend.
- Gauss was asked to attend because of his magnetic personality.
- Hawking tried to string enough time together to make space in his schedule.
- Heisenberg was uncertain that he could make it.
- Hertz said in the future he planned to attend with greater frequency.
- Mendel said he’d put some things together and see what came out.
- Morse’s reply: “I’ll be there on the dot. Can’t stop now, must dash."
- Newton planned to drop in.
- Ohm resisted the idea.
- Pavlov was drooling at the thought.
- Pierre and Marie Curie were radiating enthusiasm.
- Schrodinger2 had to take his cat to the vet, or did he?
- Stephenson3 thought the whole idea was loco.
- Volta was electrified, and Archimedes buoyant at the thought.
- Watt reckoned it would be a good way to let off steam.
- Wilbur Wright accepted, provided he and Orville could get a flight.
—From Thomas Bätzler, Thomas@Baetzler.de
1Audobon here is John James Audubon (1785–1851), French-American ornithologist, naturalist, hunter, and painter. He painted, catalogued, and described the birds of North America in a form far superior to what had gone before.
2Schrodinger here is Erwin Schrödinger (1887–1961, Vienna), Austrian theoretical physicist who achieved fame for his contributions to quantum mechanics and won the Nobel Prize in 1933. The cat is an allusion to Schrodinger’s cat, a thought experiment he devised to interpret quantum mechanics.
3Stephenson here refers to George Stephenson (1781–1848), English civil engineer and mechanical engineer who built the world’s first public railway line using steam locomotives. He is considered the “Father of Railways.”
Go to Wordplay now!
Go to On the Job now
Go to Student and School Life now!
Go to Miscellany now!
