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It's funny. Laugh. Science

Stand-Up Comic Makes Science Funny 126

Posted by timothy from the not-quite-as-cynical-as-tom-lehrer dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "The San Fransisco Chronicle is running a story about Brian Malow, a stand-up comedian who has showcased his science-centric stand-up humor for more than a decade in comedy clubs, at conventions and for corporate clients across the country. Fortunately, club patrons don't need a degree in quantum mechanics to appreciate one-liners like 'I used to be an astronomer, but I got stuck on the day shift,' 'I just started reading, "The Origin of Species." Don't tell me how it ends!' or that he 'attended a magnet school for bipolar students.' While his show is very rational and based on hard science, Malow cleverly infuses it with an abstract or surreal comic twist."
Hugh Pickens continues: "Like observing that whenever his mother would lose weight, his father would gain weight, and then linking the two by a fundamental law of nature. 'It was like the Conservation of Mass within our family,' says Malow, adding that 'fat can neither be created nor destroyed.' Last year Malow performed for colleagues at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena. 'We found his humor delightfully nerdy, and he fitted right in,' said Kevin Grazier, who is a planetary scientist and author. 'It's one thing to make people laugh when they're sitting in a darkened club room, with a few drinks in them. It takes real talent to be funny in the afternoon, in a work environment.' Malow's interest in science and nature also extends to his passion for insects, with Web site InsectPaparazzi, and he has even discovered a species of fly. 'Of course, I found it in Golden Gate Park,' he says. 'So it may have just been a tourist.'"
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Stand-Up Comic Makes Science Funny More

Stand-Up Comic Makes Science Funny

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  • A neutron walked into a bar and asked (Score:5, Funny)

    by Average_Joe_Sixpack ( 534373 ) on Sunday January 11, 2009 @06:35PM (#26411025)

    "How much for a drink?"

    The bartender replied, "For you, no charge."

  • I hope the jokes get better... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by able1234au ( 995975 ) on Sunday January 11, 2009 @06:39PM (#26411065)
    I think Big Bang Theory does a good job of science jokes.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by owlnation ( 858981 )

      I think Big Bang Theory does a good job of science jokes.

      It does, I agree. It has great scripts and a talented cast. I just wish they could move away from the multi-camera sitcom format to a single camera show on location, without the studio audience. It would be ten times more funny in a drier, less mass-appeal format.

      • Does it have a studio audience? i thought it was a laugh track.

        • Does it have a studio audience? i thought it was a laugh track.

          If that's not a laugh track then they need to throw out that audience and get a new one. The absurdly enthusiastic and inappropriate laughs nearly ruin it.

          • Many TV productions that claim to be "filmed in front of a live audience" often use a professional audience--people who are paid to be wildly enthusiastic and to laugh at the merest suggestion of a joke. That's why the audience reaction seems so fake in certain situations; it is fake.

            • Re:I hope the jokes get better... (Score:5, Informative)

              by Tablizer ( 95088 ) on Monday January 12, 2009 @01:49AM (#26414083) Journal

              "filmed in front of a live audience" often use a professional audience--people who are paid to be wildly enthusiastic and to laugh at the merest suggestion of a joke.

              I was actually part of the studio audience for a Family Feud gameshow once (not paid). What they do is make you wait and wait such that you are so bored that ANYTHING is funny when the show finally rolls. In other words, sensory deprivation. (I'm not saying this is the only technique, but it's the one they used for that show.)
                   

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by zegota ( 1105649 )
      Are you kidding? 90% of it is "I'd like to find the area under her curves, durrr." We were doing that in high school, and it wasn't particularly funny then.

      • Are you kidding? 90% of it is "I'd like to find the area under her curves, durrr." We were doing that in high school, and it wasn't particularly funny then.

        Yeah, ok Topper.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by martinw89 ( 1229324 )

      I don't agree, but I have to admit I might not have a good opinion as I've only seen a little of the show.

      Watching Big Bang makes me cringe. It seems like the nerd/blonde stereotypes would work well for a 30 second family guy joke, but I can't stand to watch it for a whole show. And, from what I saw, it seemed like they were just throwing in scientific-sounding words. The majority of the show seemed to be based on the nerd stereotype, not jokes based on science.

      But, to each his own. I've never really li

      • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

        by onemorechip ( 816444 )

        Sometimes it's cringe-inducing. But I liked Sheldon's variation on rock/paper/scissors. To make it more interesting there were five choices, the two additional being lizard and Spock. For example, lizard poisons Spock; Spock disproves paper; etc.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Daengbo ( 523424 )

        I enjoyed the first few episodes before the studio tried to mainstream it too much. Those episodes were too geeky to be popular. In fact, the pilot opens with a joke about wave / particle duality. There are also several jokes early on about string theory that run like:

        What's new in physics?

        Nothing new has really happened in the last fifty years, unless you count string theory, and just about all you can say about that is "Oooh! Look! My math is internally consistent."

        There's also an entire episode devoted to Schroedinger's cat.That kind of material is far enough into science that the listener probably needed to at least pay attention in freshman physics to get the joke. No prime-time show at that level can

        • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

          by daveime ( 1253762 )
          In fact, the mere act of opening the box will determine the state of the cat, although in this case there were three determinate states the cat could be in: these being Alive, Dead, and Bloody Furious.

        • The blonde was originally just a device so that the nerds have to talk in a language comprehensible by normal folk.

          Actually, from imdb's trivia for the show: "Penny was an add-on from a different sitcom concept."

          Several responses in this thread have said that the show has gotten "more mainstream". I actually think it's gotten _less_ mainstream. The thing that bugged me for a long time was the totally cliched "nerdy guy is after the hot dumb girl" running plot, but they've mostly gotten past that. (Kaley

      • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

        by freespac3 ( 548049 )

        I am a studying a combined degree in engineering and physics, and I find big bang theory to be a most excellent show, and surprisingly not that cringe-inducing :P

        The best thing I like about it is the writers gets the science right, something I have been very impressed about. Even the doodles on the blackboards are correct, in that they are formulas I am familiar with. Not to mention Sheldon has the same concerns about quantum teleportation as I do!! That is a topic that no show I have ever watched ever touc

        • Ah, thanks for clearing that up. As I mentioned in my first post, I haven't seen much of the show so I probably wasn't familiar with the subject they were discussing. Maybe I'll give it another chance.

  • So.. (Score:4, Funny)

    by Creepy Crawler ( 680178 ) on Sunday January 11, 2009 @06:56PM (#26411245)

    Is this comedian unionized?

    Nope, he's just really positive. :P

    • If he were unionized he'd be telling us he's a lesbian. I'm pretty sure that's the only opening to a stand up routine.

  • Funny Clip of him on YouTube (Score:5, Informative)

    by Faizdog ( 243703 ) on Sunday January 11, 2009 @07:07PM (#26411313)

    I searched for clips of him on YouTube.

    Here's a really funny ~7minute video with highlights from a couple of his shows:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vn8uzB0eypk&feature=related [youtube.com]

    The man is a genius.

    • He's also got some hilarious material up on Comedy.com [comedy.com]. The bit about Bed, Bath & Beyond was pretty damn funny.

    • I just watched it, and I don't understand how you can call that genius. (If you mean genius humor.)

      It's just so la-la... Genius humor is not the "he he he he" kind, and also not the belly-laugh kind.
      It's the kind where you are in one of two states: Either you are very excited, with a big smile, and nearly can't sit on your seat (pre-punchline), or you're like "Help, I can't breathe! HA HA HA HA HA Help!", while feeling the urge to literally roll on the floor, laughing (post-punchline).
      And I can hardly imagi

      • As a comedian myself, I will say that it is very hard to show true comic genius in the sterilized world of corporate comedy. It's worse than clean comedy, it's like comedy without victims.

        That said, it didn't do anything for me. He has confidence, but little spark.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by MegaFur ( 79453 )

      Thank you for doing this.

      Because, at this point, I *want* to like the guy, but the articles that talk *about* him are so excruciatingly bland it's all I can do to not press Ctrl+W / Alt+F4 reflexively.

  • 'We found his humor delightfully nerdy, and he fitted right in,' said Kevin Grazier, who is a planetary scientist and author.

    Ugh, really? It's hard to keep feeling superior to the artsies when other scientists are using words like 'fitted' in this context.

    • Re:Fitted? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by sciencecomedian ( 1450249 ) on Sunday January 11, 2009 @08:12PM (#26411923) Homepage

      'We found his humor delightfully nerdy, and he fitted right in,' said Kevin Grazier, who is a planetary scientist and author. Ugh, really? It's hard to keep feeling superior to the artsies when other scientists are using words like 'fitted' in this context.

      In Kevin's defense, he says he was misquoted. Seeing that appalled him, too. So you can still respect scientists.

  • Check the logs (Score:4, Insightful)

    by ciaohound ( 118419 ) on Sunday January 11, 2009 @07:10PM (#26411353)

    It takes real talent to be funny in the afternoon, in a work environment.

    I disagree. Slashdotters submit hilarious stuff from "work" most afternoons.

    • Re: (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward

      It takes real talent to be funny in the afternoon, in a work environment.

      I disagree. Slashdotters submit hilarious stuff from "work" most afternoons.

      I agree, and they get modded Insightful!

  • Don't tell me how it ends! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 11, 2009 @07:22PM (#26411455)

    'I just started reading, "The Origin of Species." Don't tell me how it ends!

    Turns out the zebra did it.

  • Why did the mathematician... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 11, 2009 @07:29PM (#26411525)

    Q: Why did the mathematician have complex numbers on his telephone?

    So he could call all his imaginary friends.

  • Getting out of a speeding ticket (Score:5, Funny)

    by Faizdog ( 243703 ) on Sunday January 11, 2009 @07:39PM (#26411607)

    Whenever I've gotten a speeding ticket, I've thought about arguing with the Judge that the cop was lying on the ticket. He noted both where I was and how fast I was going, and since he can only measure one of those things, he's clearly lying about the other.

    • Re:Getting out of a speeding ticket (Score:5, Funny)

      by Amazing Quantum Man ( 458715 ) on Sunday January 11, 2009 @07:50PM (#26411703) Homepage

      There's an old joke about a guy who got a ticket for running a red light. He argued in court that the Doppler Shift made the light appear green.

      The judge agreed with him that the original ticked was no good, and then fined him... for speeding.

      • Re:Getting out of a speeding ticket (Score:5, Informative)

        by MrNaz ( 730548 ) * on Sunday January 11, 2009 @09:15PM (#26412429) Homepage

        Lambda(red) = 620nm
        Lambda(green) = 520nm
        f = c / L
        f(red) = 4.84*10^14Hz
        f(green) = 5.77*10^14Hz

        Assuming that he observed the light over a distance of 50m, there are this many waves of light in the red spectrum:

        50 / (620*10^-9) = 8.0645*10^7

        In order to "greenshift" that, he needs to cause this many waves to incident his retina:

        50 / 520*10^-9) = 9.615*10^7

        So he needs to travel at a speed such that he only views 8.0645/9.615 oscillations he otherwise would if he were stationary.

        The redshift formula is:

        f(final) = f(emit) + f(emit) * v/c

        So:
        f(final) = 5.77*10^14Hz
        f(emit) = 4.84*10^14Hz
        c = 3*10^8m/s

        v = c * ( ( f(f) - f(e) ) / f(e) )
        = 3*10^8*((5.77*10^14 - 4.84*10^14)/4.84*10^14)
        = 5.76*10^7m/s

        = 207,520,611 km/h

        That's one HELL of a speeding ticket.

    • Nice. More on the Newtonian level, my high school physics teacher said that police don't really issue speeding tickets, since the ticket will list your direction of travel at the time of the infraction. So it's really a velocity ticket.

      Actually, he instructed us to correct the police officer on this if we were ever pulled over. He was a funny guy.

      • Riiiight... Because the thugs that become deputies in southern states love nothing more than a smart-assed geek...

    • This won't work if the cop has a partner and a stopwatch. By combining d=rt with the Mean Value Theorem [wikipedia.org], they can write you a ticket without measuring your speed.

    • Ah, that's one of many Quantum Cop jokes [galactanet.com] from Casey & Andy. (Not saying you stole it, just that C&A did it too.) Wish that comic was still alive...

    • Whenever I've gotten a speeding ticket, I've thought about arguing with the Judge that the cop was lying on the ticket. He noted both where I was and how fast I was going, and since he can only measure one of those things, he's clearly lying about the other.

      Make sure you video it and post a story about it on slashdot so we can have a really good laugh when you're jailed for contempt of court.

  • Chemical reactions - they're a blast! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by GuineaPigMan ( 663444 ) on Sunday January 11, 2009 @07:52PM (#26411721)

    I'd credit Bill Nye with being one of the first to make science funny. Maybe he wasn't as good as this guy, but I always appreciated the dry humor as a kid.

    Science rules!

    • "Oh, Bill Nye, he showed us how to put frozen carbon dioxide into non-alcoholic drinks. I always appreciated the Dry humor."

  • Tom Lehrer, MIT Mathemematician, Musical Comic (Score:5, Interesting)

    by kafka47 ( 801886 ) on Sunday January 11, 2009 @08:03PM (#26411839) Homepage

    This story reminds me of Tom Lehrer, an MIT professor of mathematics that had a penchant for song-writing and performing. And he was really quite hilarious.

    e.g. the famous "chemical elements" song :
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYW50F42ss8 [youtube.com]

  • Quantum Physics (Score:5, Funny)

    by DJ_Perl ( 648258 ) on Sunday January 11, 2009 @08:11PM (#26411917) Homepage
    Q: A Quantum Physicist was in bed with a paramour, when his wife walked in. What did he say?

    A: Wait, I can explain Everything! It's not what it looks like!

  • Re: discovering a species of fly (Score:5, Informative)

    by sciencecomedian ( 1450249 ) on Sunday January 11, 2009 @09:04PM (#26412355) Homepage
    Correction: I didn't discover a new species of fly - but I did take a picture that may be the first known occurrence of a particular species in this part of the world (the Nearctic): http://bugguide.net/node/view/21487 [bugguide.net] (but it's a species known in other parts of the world)

  • Check his website (Score:3, Insightful)

    by onemorechip ( 816444 ) on Sunday January 11, 2009 @10:30PM (#26412961)

    If you look carefully that's a Greek theta in his last name, so the correct transliteration is Malthw.

    • Lots of other letters on the website have been replaced by the greek equivalents that look like the roman letters. He's "malow" in the page title as well.

      This is merely another example of inclusive nerd humour. Or does he write in his blthg about his testimphinials?

      http://www.sciencecomedian.com/ [sciencecomedian.com]

  • Randall Munroe already did it with XKCD. More geared towards the /. audience, but come on: "Man, I suck at this game. Can you give me a few pointers?" "0x3A28213A, 0x6339392C, 7363682E." "I hate you."

  • A little offtopic, but I remember hearing a few years ago about a professor who had written and/or gathered together a bunch of song parodies and rhymes which served as mnemonics for students. I vaguely recall they were all biology related.

    Unfortunately, I can't remember much about his/her name or school, and I figured this was as good a topic to ask the folks here.

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