The Turtle Project
My father likes to say that the key to successful humor is
“repetition, repetition, repetition.” He
believes that jokes get funnier the more you hear them, and that repeated punch
lines breed familiarity which breeds laughter. And as much as it pains me to
admit it, my father is right. In this case.
It’s why Who’s On
First is still side-splittingly hilarious even after my first grade teacher
made us diagram the field, it’s why Talladega Nights quotes
will never fail to make my mother dissolve in to laughter, and it’s why watching Monty Python’s Holy Grail
is about 300% better with friends who shout out all the lines.
So, when I make a joke I like to commit. It’s one thing to have a funny one-liner. It’s another thing to build a joke, through layers and repetition and possibly through
the continual annoyance of your computer science professor.
Which brings us to turtles.
I’m taking a computer science class this semester. It’s two
lecture periods a week, plus a Friday lab session where we learn about creating
websites and Excel tricks and PowerPoint and whatever else the professor can
think to throw at us. I’m not going to lie- I’m pretty good at it. I know my
way around a computer, and it shows.
So the first Friday of the semester we all file in to the
upstairs computer lab. My class is only seven people, so my professor had us
all sit in the front row where she could keep an eye on the work we were doing.
Our first assignment was to make a very basic webpage with our name, a picture,
and a link to any website of our choosing.
I decided to link to the Google image results for “turtles
wearing hats.” As everyone knows, turtles
in hats are humorous and delightful; it simply made me happy. It didn’t make my
teacher happy though. She was extremely unenthused.
How can you see this and not smile? |
I found her lack of enthusiasm disheartening. But not
disheartening enough to, ya know… stop.
So I committed. Instead
of admitting that my teacher found my weird turtle joke not funny (or perhaps because my teacher found my weird turtle
joke not funny), I decided I was going to turn all of my assignments in to things about turtles.
I made PowerPoints
about turtles and outlines about why turtles are great, and presented research comparing
the cost of
turtle habitats at various pet stores. I committed, and I committed hard.
My professor continued to find it all profoundly unfunny. I continued to find
it all hysterical.
When it came time for our big lab assignment -- a series of
connected webpages, containing a PowerPoint, pictures, and lots of links -- I
knew immediately what my topic would be. Our teacher made us turn in an
outline, and I got mine back with the comment “Jordan, this is very strange but
not something I can technically take points off for.” Which is really all I can ask for, I suppose.
So I made my
project about turtles. It was rudimentary and it was delightful. I worked
very hard and I was very proud. My teacher was not amused. But I was. And that
is what’s important. (That, by the way,
is another my father’s true but annoying lessons: the most important thing is
to amuse yourself. Others can never be
fully trusted to do so.)
So I stuck with turtles, cracked myself up, and annoyed my
teacher. But not to point of it affecting
my grade. I like a good joke as much as anyone, but no matter how much I love
turtles they aren’t worth failing computer science for.
UPDATE 3/10/16
I realized that when I posted this, I didn't include the screenshot of the email that spurred this whole thing. It is the best email I have ever received and ever will receive. Enjoy.
UPDATE 3/10/16
I realized that when I posted this, I didn't include the screenshot of the email that spurred this whole thing. It is the best email I have ever received and ever will receive. Enjoy.
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