Item:

“Infinitely many mathematicians walk into a bar.The first says, ‘I’ll have a beer.’ The second says, ‘I’ll have half a beer.’ The third says, ‘I’ll have a quarter of a beer.’ The barman pulls out just two beers. The mathematicians are all like. ‘That’s all you’re giving us? How drunk do you expect us to get on that?’ The bartender says, ‘Come on guys. Know your limits.'”

• Oral Folklore: joke
• English
• USA
• Collector: Agastya Gupta

Informant Data:

Kevin Li is an Econ/Government/Mathematical Finance Major in the Dartmouth College Class of 2017. He is from Chesterbrook, Pennsylvania.

Contextual Data:

The informant found this math joke online, but reports that he has not had much occasion to use it in class or other social contexts.

Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):

Kevin’s Interview:

Informant’s Comments:

The informant later stated that the joke is based on the understanding of converging limits in mathematics, an idea also important in Computer Science.

Collector’s Comments:

This joke plays on the double entendre of ‘limits,’ a term that relates to both calculus and alcohol. This joke contributes to the stereotypes of programmers/mathematicians as being overly logical. The participants find a logical but absurd solution in the face of an everyday challenge. Other variations of this joke have been told with the mathematicians themselves making the suggestion to just get two beers, instead of the bartender. The stereotype classification makes more sense from this perspective.

Tags/Keywords:

jokes, math, stereotypes, calculus, limits