| If you are a reader of the Planet Science Newsletter you'll know it zings off to the email list lunchtime Fridays full of hot off the press science info, new Planet Science content alerts, science education news, competitions, general hilarity, activities and science history. If you are not signed up for it and all this sounds up your street, please do click here and join the thronging 16,500 or so people who already are. But beware, in every newsletter there is the thing we call a 'joke of the week'. And if Anne McNaught, the newsletter editor, is feeling very cruel and heartless, there may be more than one. GULP!! Some come from the world wide web, some from word of mouth, and some we have to blame on loyal but misguided newsletter readers who are only trying to help. After more than two years of newsletters we have a big bin full of these so-called 'jokes', and therefore it is time to unleash the least rubbish ones onto the site in the form of a collection. Of course they are meant to have a science theme to them, and some of them do. Some teachers have even said thanks because they use them in the classroom! Some of the jokes have a tenuous link to science about one micron thick and some of them, well, see what you think... There are some symbols to guide you through the jokes in the collection:
so without further ado, Ladies and Gentlemen we are proud (what?) to present THE PLANET SCIENCE NEWSLETTER JOKE OF THE WEEK COLLECTION
THAT ROCKS, MANTwo geologists are on a field trip studying rock formations in Russia, and have arranged for a pilot to fly them into a area in the remote far north to collect some specimens. While they're there they identify six big rocks to take back to their lab for further analysis. The pilot returns, as arranged, to pick them up, and they start loading everything into the plane. When the pilot sees the rocks however, he objects strenuously. "Those rocks are way too heavy, he says, the plane can only take four of them, so you'll have to leave two behind." The geologists argue with the pilot, telling him that the year before, they collected six similar sized rocks and the pilot had allowed them to put all of them aboard. This plane is the exact same model and capacity. Reluctantly, the pilot finally permits them to put the whole lot onboard. But when they attempt to take off and leave the valley, the little plane can't carry the load and they have to make an emergency landing in the wilderness. Climbing out of the wreckage, one geologist says to the other, "Any idea where we are?" "Yeah, I think so," replies his colleague. "Must be about the same place where we had to make the emergency landing last year!" Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson are busy with yet another complicated case. Suddenly Holmes drops down and seizes a chunk of limestone from the ground. "What is it Holmes?" asks Watson eagerly. Holmes turns and says, gravely "It's sedimentary dear Watson". Our local football team played a cup match against a team whose pitch was made out of broken-up bricks. We won on aggregate. SCIENTIFIC COLEMAN-BALLSHeard on tv, radio and in real life. Talking about a Shakespeare play, possibly As You Like It: " .... Viola and her identical twin brother ..." In a football match " .... the top left-hand corner of the ball. " Near the end of Le Mans this weekend " .... and the sun has been shining for the whole of the 24 hours." Janet Reid was driving her daughter westward after the Malibu fires, when the smoke in the sky made everything look surreal. "Ooh, Wendy, look at the sun," she told her daughter. "It looks like a big ball of fire." The 3-year-old preschooler replied: "It is a big ball of fire."
YOUVE ALL HEARD OF DOUG AND PETEMeet some of their mates Q. What do you call a man who lays on the floor? A. Matt.' Q. What do you call a man who lives on an oil rig? A. Derek Q. What do you call a man who wears a paper bag on his head? A. Russell Q. What do you call a man who always agrees with you? A. Roger Q. What do you call a man with a seagull on his head? A. Cliff Q. What do you call a man with a wooden head? A. Edward Q. What do you call a man with three wooden heads? A. Edward Woodward Q. What do you call a man who always makes his voice heard? A. Mike Q. What do you call a man who props up cars? A. Jack Q. What do you call a man with a rabbit on his head? A. Warren Q. What do you call a man with a number plate on his head? A. Reg Q. What does his mum call him? A. Our Reg Q. What do you call a man wearing a raincoat? A. Mac Q. What do you call a man wearing three raincoats? A. Max Q. What do you call a woman standing at the end of a football field? A. Annette Q. What do you call a scientist with his fingers stuck in his ears? A. Anything - he can't hear you. Q. What do you call a woman with plenty of energy? A. Jules (Joules) Q. What do you call a woman with a digital display on her head? A. Elsie Dee Q. What do you call a lady essential to solving equations? A. Constance BEYOND OUR KEN"All of you who believe in psychokinesis, raise my hand" A lonely frog, desperate for any form of company telephoned the Psychic Hotline to find out what his future has in store. "Sure, yes, Tom and I are old friends, and I can prove it." So Bubba and his boss fly out to Hollywood and knock on Tom Cruise's door, and sure enough, Tom Cruise, shouts, "Bubba! Great to see you! You and your friend come right in and join me for lunch!" Although impressed, Bubba's boss is still sceptical. After they leave Cruise's house, he tells Bubba that he thinks Bubba's knowing Cruise was just lucky. "No, no, just name anyone else," Bubba says. "President Bush," his boss quickly retorts. "Yes," Bubba says, "I know him, let's fly out to Washington." And off they go. At the White House, Bush spots Bubba on the tour and motions him and his boss over, saying, "Bubba, what a surprise, I was just on my way to a meeting, but you and your friend come on in and let's have a cup of coffee first and catch up." Well, the boss is very shaken by now, but still not totally convinced. After they leave the White house grounds, he expresses his doubts to Bubba, who again implores him to name anyone else. "The Pope," his boss replies. "Sure!" says Bubba. "My folks are from Bavaria, and I've known the Pope a long time." So off they fly to Rome. Bubba and his boss are assembled with the masses in Vatican Square when Bubba says, "This will never work. I can't catch the Pope's eye among all these people. Tell you what, I know all the guards so let me just go upstairs and I'll come out on the balcony with the Pope" and he disappears into the crowd headed toward the Vatican. Sure enough, half an hour later Bubba emerges with the Pope on the balcony. But by the time Bubba returns, he finds that his boss has had a heart attack and is surrounded by paramedics. Working his way to his boss' side, Bubba asks him, "What happened?" His boss looks up and says, "I was doing fine until you and the Pope came out on the balcony and the man next to me said, "Who's that on the balcony with Bubba?" MISCELLANEOUSQ. What did the pencil sharpener say to the pencil? Q. What’s a Hydrogen Tester’s favourite type of music?
Q. What’s the Transition Elements’ favourite type of music?
Q. What’s Hydrochloric, Sulphuric and Nitric’s favourite type of music? The teacher asked the President if he would like to lead the discussion on the word "tragedy". So the illustrious leader asked the class for an example of a "tragedy". One little boy stood up and offered: "If my best friend, who lives on a farm, is playing in the field and a tractor runs over him and kills him, that would be a tragedy". "No," said Bush, "that would be an accident." A little girl raised her hand: "If a school bus carrying 50 children drove over a cliff, killing everyone inside, that would be a tragedy." "I'm afraid not," explained the president. "That's what we would call a great loss." The room went silent. No other children volunteered. Bush searched the room. "Isn't there someone here who can give me an example of a tragedy?" Finally at the back of the room a small boy raised his hand. In a quiet voice he said: "If Air Force One carrying you and Mrs Bush was struck by a friendly fire missile and blown to smithereens, that would be a tragedy." "Fantastic!" exclaimed Bush. "That's right. And can you tell me why that would be a tragedy?" The Unjust Salary Theorem asserts that scientists can never earn as much as sales people. This theorem is proved as follows. Start by using the physics formula Power = Work / Time Now you probably have heard that Knowledge is Power and Time is Money. Substitute these tautologies into the formula for power to obtain Knowledge = Work/Money Solving for Money, one finds Money = Work / Knowledge. Therefore, the less you know, the more you make. |