Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Mathematical joke


 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review).  No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was Speedy Keep as bad-faith nom; nominator is going through hellfire and brimstone to try and get this page nuked and is even going so far as to edit others' opinions to support his. Note that this does not preclude a good-faith nomination later. -  Jéské  ( v^_^v  E pluribus unum ) 17:17, 21 May 2008 (UTC)

Mathematical joke

 * ( [ delete] ) – (View AfD) (View log)

This article is one big pile of original research. The first link that shows up on google for "mathematical humor" or mathematical joke is a professor webpage at the University of Utah. It is not a well-established type of humor like "knock knock jokes" or the "one-liner" and so, likely does not deserve its own page. Just to compare, the "That's what she said" joke does not have it's own article. I recommend a merge to Joke, Humor, or American humor. WhatsUpPussycat? (talk) 20:57, 19 May 2008 (UTC)
 * Delete as nom. WhatsUpPussycat? (talk) 21:00, 19 May 2008 (UTC)
 * — WhatsUpPussycat? (talk • contribs) has made few or no other edits outside this topic.
 * Question Is your vote delete or merge? We can't do both. Olaf Davis | Talk 22:46, 19 May 2008 (UTC)
 * Keep. I disagree with the premise that something has to be as well known as knock-knock jokes to merit an article. We'd have to delete most of this encyclopedia if that were true. The Google argument doesn't hold any water either. Whole books have been written about mathematical humor - check Amazon. It's true that the article has many problems (references among them), but it passes general notability guidelines. –  j ak s mata  21:49, 19 May 2008 (UTC)
 * Keep. Notable and verifiable subject. `'Míkka>t 22:36, 19 May 2008 (UTC)
 * Comment I'd like to see the article kept since I believe it's a notable enough topic: however, the current references don't really demonstrate this. If the decision is to merge it should be to humour or joke; America has no monopoly on mathematicians or their humour. Olaf Davis | Talk 22:46, 19 May 2008 (UTC)
 * It is a common and sad problem with wikipedia articles on humor: while jokers are abound in wikipedia, rarely they want to take a scholar approach. I compiled a huge List of publications in humor research, but no one seems to make any use it, and I am quite busy in wikipedia with other even more useless jobs and can only occasionally come back to humor. `'Míkka>t 01:56, 20 May 2008 (UTC)
 * Keep. Notable enough topic.  Article could use review by someone familiar with the subject to make sure the content is limited to notable and verifiable jokes, and weed out any original research. KleenupKrew (talk) 00:37, 20 May 2008 (UTC)
 * Delete. If mathematical joke deserves a page, then there might as well be pages for animal humor, or humor in other fields of study. It simply does not belong as its own page. If it is not deleted, it should be shortened greatly and merged with American humor, I doubt most even makes sense in other languages due to heavy reliance on puns. AboriginalDuck (talk) 01:29, 20 May 2008 (UTC) — AboriginalDuck (talk&#32;• contribs) has made few or no other edits outside this topic.
 * A-Duck's very first edit. While his first sentence make sense (anything can go asl nog as well referenced), the last two ones are heavily misguided. `'Míkka>t 01:56, 20 May 2008 (UTC)
 * While it may be my first edit, I think my comment should stand on its own merit-- the language and cultural barrier makes it difficult for non-Americans to understand, I would be more than content with merging it with joke, but I thought American humor might be more fitting. AboriginalDuck (talk) 02:17, 20 May 2008 (UTC)
 * Comment Speaking as one of the 30 to 50% of native English speakers who doesn't live in the US, I don't have any difficulty understanding these jokes due to cultural differences. Unless there's any evidence Americans make more maths jokes than other people, I don't think it's a good place for it. After all, would we make pun a subsection of that page (assuming it wasn't given one of its own) simply because puns made in American English are confusing to a Frenchman? Olaf Davis | Talk 07:49, 20 May 2008 (UTC)
 * I think mathematical humour does qualify as more notable in its own right than say animal humour: it uses particular esoteric references and has relation to ideas of mathematical aesthetics, whereas I think most animal jokes are more 'mainstream' jokes which happen to have animals as their subject. Again though, the current article does a poor job of asserting this. Olaf Davis | Talk 07:56, 20 May 2008 (UTC)


 * Keep It meets notability guidelines, as far as I'm concerned. I mean, who hasn't heard this joke? Here are a couple referenced found using Google News(set to "all dates"): Math and humor: the connection, Math jokes in adult cartoons, Math = cool(available to registered(free) users, only). I'm sure more exist. Why was six afraid of seven?, Wakanda's Black Panther! &spades; / &diams; 04:23, 20 May 2008 (UTC)
 * Keep and clean up. The article needs improvements, but I think the topic is certainly worthy of Wikipedia and the article is at least some progress towards what it should ultimately be. CapitalSasha ~ talk 05:19, 20 May 2008 (UTC)
 * Keep Clearly notable subject. Has some sources. Could use some more, but AfD is not cleanup. Nominator has very short edit history and their argument amounts to WP:IDONTLIKEIT. As to the absurd idea that this is somehow American humour - don't make me laugh ! Gandalf61 (talk) 13:20, 20 May 2008 (UTC)
 * Keep. Clearly a notable topic (as has been pointed out, books have been written about it).  Yes, it probably needs cleanup to ensure that all listed jokes have reliable third-party sources, but that's not a reason for deletion. Klausness (talk) 13:33, 20 May 2008 (UTC)
 * Keep Obviously it's not original research since most of these are things that everybody's heard and has been hearing for decades. They're mostly fairly lame, but they're part of the culture. Michael Hardy (talk) 16:40, 20 May 2008 (UTC)
 * Hey, I hope you're not calling the abelian grape joke lame. Because that's the funniest joke ever. Klausness (talk) 17:21, 20 May 2008 (UTC)


 * Comment The nominator attempted to close this AfD as delete while changing other editor's votes (did they think no-one would notice ???). I suggest this has become a bad-faith nomination and should now be speedily closed as keep. Gandalf61 (talk) 09:37, 21 May 2008 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.