Q: What’s the difference between ontology and taxonomy
A: Ontology is the study of how to kill jokes about taxonomy
Conversation
All my favorite jokes are ontological jokes. Let me list a few of my favorites. See if you can kill them all by explaining why they work.
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A bit 101, but hilarious:
Zapp: If we can hit that bullseye the rest of the dominoes will fall like a house of cards: checkmate
m.youtube.com/watch?v=KfU69_
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Grad school level: Homer Simpson counts dumbbell reps.
95, 96, 13, 64, banana.
I call this Homeric Cardinality. It may be an obscure reference I don’t get, but I enjoy it as an ontological joke. Here it is, in German whynot.
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De rigeur reference to Borges encyclopedia. A pre-killed ontological joke that you have to back up a bit to laugh at. Tag yourself. I’m 13: Those that have just broken a flower vase. multicians.org/thvv/borges-an
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Here’s a really advanced ontological joke I enjoyed as a kid:
“What’s common between Amitabh Bachchan and Hitler?”
“I don’t know.”
“They’re both dictators, except for Amitabh Bachchan”
Replying to
Ontological humor isn’t absurdity. It creeps right up to the line of absurdity without crossing over. Lewis Carroll was a master of that.
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If you want a serious primer on the topic here you go plato.stanford.edu/entries/logic-
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