Give me your best science cartoons!

[Jürgen Hubert]

I just found one of the most brilliant science jokes I've ever seen:



This has reminded me that a lot of biology teachers use Gary Larson cartoons as teaching aids - after all, lessons are far more memorable when you can associate them with a good joke. And this has inspired me to start a project to collect all those jokes available online: The Science Jokes Wiki

And I'd like your help with it. So if you know of any good jokes and cartoons available online where an understanding of science is required for understanding the punchline, then please share them here!

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

OK, maybe I'm just being dense, but I am not getting the joke of this.

 

[Pbartender]

OK, maybe I'm just being dense, but I am not getting the joke of this.

The genie granted his wish not by correcting his answer on the test, but by giving all hydrogen atoms two valence atoms...

Thereby changing the fundamental chemical properties of hydrogen, and effectively destroying the universe as we know it, since hydrogen constitutes approximately 75% of the universe's total mass.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

The genie granted his wish not by correcting his answer on the test, but by giving all hydrogen atoms two valence atoms...

Thereby changing the fundamental chemical properties of hydrogen, and effectively destroying the universe as we know it, since hydrogen constitutes approximately 75% of the universe's total mass.

Ah, thank you. As I thought, I was being dense and was focused on the genie changing his answer on the test...

 

[hafrogman]

Really, the entirety of xkcd, but my favorite. . .

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

The genie granted his wish not by correcting his answer on the test, but by giving all hydrogen atoms two valence atoms...

Thereby changing the fundamental chemical properties of hydrogen, and effectively destroying the universe as we know it, since hydrogen constitutes approximately 75% of the universe's total mass.

Basically, this would make hydrogen unable to form molecular bonds - just like helium. Therefore, all molecules with hydrogen atoms would disintegrate - the most common of which here on Earth is probably water.

BOOM indeed.

In my focus group, only the physicists understood the joke - but they all thought it hilarious.

 

[Nyaricus]

In my focus group, only the physicists understood the joke - but they all thought it hilarious.

I didn't get the specifics of the joke, but I totally followed alone what the genie did there - he didn't change the answer, he changed the matter itself

------

I like this one joke I saw in the paper I should have kept.

First Strip: spaceship in outer space rocketing towards a giant button which reads "Restart"

Second Strip: primordial fish-thing coming out of the water to live on land.

Third Strip: cavemen (with some longbows leaning against the cave wall) roasting a pig over a big bonfire.

Fourth Strip: human civilization in the future with astro-cars gliding along a futuristic skyline dotted with tall skyscrapers.

Fifth strip: spaceship in outer space rocketing towards a giant button which reads "Restart"

I thought it was funny

cheers,
--N

 

[Kahuna Burger]

I didn't get the specifics of the joke, but I totally followed alone what the genie did there - he didn't change the answer, he changed the matter itself

yeah, I got that as well. Fricka Fracka DM genies....

(It reminds me in reverse of a comment I heard once about how after a woman had a biopsy, all her friends and family started praying for it to turn out negative. And I found myself thinking "If she does have cancer, and their prayers had an effect, wouldn't the easiest effect be for the test to done wrong, giving her a negative biopsy (and cancer)?" You really have the phrase these things right....)

 

[DarkKestral]

I assume you have a fairly large collection of Far Side cartoons? Larsen's science content's occasionally pretty high.

Also, if you like metaphysics along with your physics, Dresden Codak has some science-related jokes that are worthy. Good art, too. Doesn't update more than once a week, usually, and the archives are pretty short, so there's not much there to glean that is specifically useful, but it's certainly fun. In particular, I believe you should note #22 and #14.

I can't think of too much that stays far inside the boundaries of realistic physics beyond that, though.. sorry. Most of what I see in that vein is one-shot comics, other than xkcd and DC.

 

[moritheil]

http://www.phdcomics.com/

Not literally about science so much as it is about the experiences of scientists in their graduate years.