Intellectual Jokes That Teach

2 LinchZhang 1 9/18/2025, 10:26:52 PM linch.substack.com ↗

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LinchZhang · 3h ago
I compiled a list of my favorite intellectual jokes, as well as offer a short treatise on why intellectual jokes aren't just "jokes about smart people"

In xenosociology class we learned about a planet full of people who believe in anti-induction: if the sun has risen every day in the past, then they think it’s very unlikely that it’d rise again.

As a result, these people are all starving and living in poverty. An Earth xenosociologist visits the planet and studies them assiduously for 6 months. At the end of her stay, she asked to be brought to their greatest scientists and philosophers, and poses the question: “Hey, why are you still using this anti-induction philosophy? You’re living in horrible poverty!” The lead philosopher of science looks at her in pity as if she’s a child, and replies:

“Well, it never worked before…” __ Did you know? The moon landing was staged. It was faked by Stanley Kubrick.

But Kubrick was a perfectionist, so he insisted that they shoot on location.