Reading · Myq Kaplan's Arty Har-Hars

Dear friends,

I’m grateful for you!
Thank you for being here!

And now, another edition of my project in which I examine jokes and works of art that I love and that I’ve thought about frequently since first encountering them years and years ago.

The project began with a piece about one Mitch Hedberg joke and has continued with many great jokes from comedy heroes and friends!

Today’s gem comes from an episode of “Pinky and the Brain,” where the Brain is trying to take over the world by writing a musical. During that process, this exchange occurs:

Brain: “What rhymes with June?”
Pinky: “No it doesn’t.”

To start, let me just make sure we’re all on the same page of understanding this wonderful joke.

Brain is asking Pinky for a word that rhymes with June.

Pinky is responding as though Brain has not asked a question but rather made a statement of fact, the fact being that the word “What” is a word that rhymes with the word “June.”

Since that is not in fact true, Pinky is correct in saying “No it doesn’t,” because the word “What” does NOT rhyme with the word “June.”

Both parties were operating in their own linguistic reality, each reality completely logical and consistent internally, but neither of them understanding that the other mouse was operating within and communicating from/about a different system, which is where the humor comes from.

Also, I think that this kind of miscommunication is going on in our world ALL THE TIME.

For example, I recently posted a stand-up comedy video to social media, a joke of mine about time travel. Someone responded that my thoughts about time travel were wrong. I asked him what the “right” way to think about time travel was, and he explained his theory (that there is only one timeline, a continuous loop) which ultimately did not even conflict with mine (that if you could go back in time, you couldn’t change anything because it had already happened, so anything you did was already done the first time).

So already, a miscommunication is afoot… But that’s not all!

He then learned that I was a philosophy major and got even MORE excited to talk to me about time travel, but from a scientific/engineering perspective. I let him know my interest in the topic was more coming from an entertainment perspective (I like watching movies about time travel, reading books about it, telling jokes about it, and so forth).

Specifically, I said this to him:

“I’m a comedian and a human being happy to be living in the present. I love art about time travel. I love the story ‘The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate’ by Ted Chiang. I love ‘Back to the Future.’ I love a lot of silly movies and shows and books. I’m not a scientist, and I’m not interested in going anywhere but Now (even if it were possible).”

He seemed disappointed, saying “Thought you were a scientist.”

I asked what gave him that impression, since the whole conversation we were having had stemmed from his comment on a stand-up comedy clip of mine from a social media account which clearly identifies me as a comedian.

He responded like this: “You said you are a philosophy major ... I looked it up online ... that’s science ... theoretical physics”

His conclusion was that as a philosophy major, I was basically a scientist, and he said “I thought you’d actually like to use your knowledge.”

And here is what I wrote back to him:

“I did indeed study philosophy.

A philosopher is not a type of scientist.

If you Google ‘is philosophy science?’ the answer that comes up will be ‘No.’

Of course it’s not as simple as that. There is overlap between science and philosophy. Both involve searching for the truth about the world, in their own way. There are absolutely scientists that are philosophers and philosophers that are scientists. But I am not a scientist. My philosophy degree is a Bachelor of ARTS. My master’s degree in linguistics is a Master of ARTS. Not science.

Of course, unofficially we are all scientists. Unofficially, we are all detectives. Unofficially, we are all artists.

My career is comedian. I use philosophy and psychology (which I also majored in) and linguistics all the time. I seek knowledge and I do use my knowledge, in all the ways that I want to.

It seems that you want to seek and use your knowledge differently than I do, and that’s fine.

But even if I accepted your terms that philosophy IS science, it doesn’t mean that the kind of science that philosophy is, is the same kind of science that can create time travel.”

And that’s not all! To summarize the rest of our interaction, he asked what kind of art I made, and I told him comedy, music, poetry, and various kinds of writing. He then asked if I wanted to work with him on a project as an animator, which I thought was odd because visual art was specifically not one of the arts I mentioned that I do.

I was offering one thing and he was receiving another. And possibly vice versa! Miscommunications galore!

The point is, we were living and operating and communicating within and from different realms. I live in a world where philosophers and scientists aren’t all the same people, and where the kind of philosophical science that I do in fact do is in linguistically parsing the various semantic distinctions between philosophers and scientists, for example. He lived in a world where a philosopher-scientist could create a time machine and where a musician-writer-comedian could manifest visual art. It’s a beautiful, magical world, and I’m happy to be living adjacently to such wonder.

Also, none of what he said rhymes with “June.”

And now, because I also enjoy sharing my own jokes, here are some of those!

A) is for A joke about time travel:

I’ve loved time travel ever since I was an old man.

B) is for the Brain (and Pinky):

You know how they say we have two ears and one mouth because we’re supposed to listen twice as much as we speak?

Well, we also have two pinkies but only one brain because we’re supposed to drink tea in a fancy way twice as much as we’re supposed to think.

C) is for Coming up with a fun new nickname for a scientist:

We all know the fun rhyme that is “Bill Nye the Science Guy.”

I wonder if this other science fellow ever thought of telling people that he goes by “Neil deGrasse Tyson, the Science Guy, son!”

And that’s about it from ME.
But what about from YOU?
Here are some questions!

1) How are you doing? What is new and good? How is your heart?
2) Do you have any favorite Pinky and/or the Brain jokes/memories?
3) Any fun miscommunications in your life you’d like to share?
4) How do YOU think time travel works?
5) How are you doing NOW?

A Philosophical Inquiry into Pinky and the Brain and Time Travel

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