Abstruse Jokes

If this was my cat, I would name it Lisp.




Next...
...anyone?

ab·struse
abˈstro͞os,əbˈstro͞os/
adjective
            difficult to understand; obscure.


You know those jokes people tell and you just stand there perplexed: "WTF, man?"
Well, that's what I'm after here. Surely, you all have jokes that make you laugh your ass off while other people just politely smile - at best - while looking somewhat confused.

Like the "What The Hell Is It" thread, you post an abstruse joke, and the rest of us try to figure it out. Please don't use personal or you-gotta-be-there anecdotes. Those are impossible. Questions are allowed and must be answered.

I have to admit that I have started with a tough one, unless you are well-versed in arcane programming languages. Come to think of it, that is actually quite a good clue for the "Cat named Lisp" post.

LISP is a programming language, but to my knowledge C++ makes much more use of nested recursion.

What do Ecstacy, air raid sirens and wi-fi have in common?

NoCoPilot wrote:

LISP is a programming language, but to my knowledge C++ makes much more use of nested recursion.

Lisp is old; it is the second high-level programming language, having been introduced the year after Fortran, which was the world's first high-level programming language and also the first language in which I wrote code.

Nested recursion is not a commonly used practice in any  programming language. C++, like any programming language,  can use recursion and I written such code, but Lisp is specifically designed for it. The name of the program is short for List Processing. The main program makes a single call to a function, passing the address of a list of data. The function then runs recursively, processing each item in the list.

In any case, you are right, Sir. It is the recursive nature of Lisp that leads to the cat's name. I admit that it is what would commonly be referred to as a Nerd Joke. I don't know why it occurred to when I saw the picture of the cat; I haven't done any Lisp programming in about forty years, and precious little of it then.

Mark this day on your calendar. For all the decades I have spent with computers, this is the very first Nerd Joke I have come up with.

So did you appreciate the cleverness of the Lisp joke? Or am I the only one who appreciates it? That would not be a first.

NoCoPilot wrote:

What do Ecstacy, air raid sirens and wi-fi have in common?

They all contain vowels.

Just in case that's not what you were after, I'll give it some more thought.
By "Ecstacy" I assume you mean the drug and not the emotion.

Assume whatever you want. It's part of the abstruse clues.

"Questions are allowed and must be answered."

I understood (and appreciated) the cat joke immediately.

_Howard wrote:

"Questions are allowed and must be answered."

Can you phrase that as a question?

That?

I can't answer that.

Not important. Don't let that bother you.

As to your riddle, I don't have any idea. I hate riddles.

richard09 wrote:

I understood (and appreciated) the cat joke immediately.

I'm glad to hear that, Richard. Thanks. Not many people would have caught it.

_Howard wrote:

As to your riddle, I don't have any idea. I hate riddles.

"Anthills."

NoCoPilot wrote:

"Anthills."

Yeah. Right.


My wife was so sick last week, her body temperature fell to absolute zero. She's 0K now.

It's too bad she's lost all potential.

I married a new wife, now I'm supporting two of them. I think that's big of me.

_Howard wrote:

NoCoPilot wrote:

"Anthills."

Yeah. Right.

Clue #2: Harvey Korman in 1974

"Blazing Saddles"
No help.
I give up.

_Howard wrote:

"Blazing Saddles"
No help.

No, that's a good start.

Dig deeper.

Watched Blazing Saddles last night. Still no clue.

I'm sorry for your loss.

You are so close to a breakthrough.

What loss? Blazing Saddles is hilarious. I've watched in a bunch of times. On VHS, Laser Disc, and DVD.

"Is it twoo about your people being... gifted?"

I'll ask one more question (a repeat, actually): Does "Ecstacy" refer to the drug MDMA or to the emotion? Does it mean anything that you have chosen the obsolete spelling of ecstasy?
Okay, it was two questions, but one was a repeat, so it's really only one new question.