![]() ![]() The most famous version of the joke appeared in 1951 on the American comedy series “The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show”. ![]() Tatum’s words offer a fresh twist on a traditional joke that has been handed down from one generation of mathematicians to the next. This is witnessed by Drederick Tatum, Springfield’s famous ex-boxer, who proclaims: “We all know ‘πr 2’, but today ‘pie are justice’.” The Pie Man’s first act of superheroism is to deliver retribution to someone who bullies Lisa. ![]() Homer disguises himself as a superhero named Simple Simon, Your Friendly Neighborhood Pie Man, and punishes evildoers by flinging pies in their faces. After graduating, they worked on the first series of “The Simpsons”, thereby starting the tradition of having mathematical writers on the team. He formed a writing partnership with fellow nerd and Lampooner Mike Reiss. When he was just sixteen, Al went to study mathematics at Harvard University, where he joined the Harvard Lampoon, a student society that publishes humorous writing. In a flashback, we see Homer and Marge visiting the school, where they encounter two child prodigies in the playground, who have invented their own lyrics to a hand-clapping song:Īl Jean was the writer responsible for deftly crowbarring this mathematical reference into the episode. However, before investing in a musical instrument, Homer and Marge considered sending Lisa to Miss Tillingham’s School for Snotty Girls and Mama’s Boys. In the concluding scenes of “Lisa’s Sax”, we learn that Homer bought Lisa a saxophone in order to nurture her nascent genius. Carter (1904–94), a historian at Colorado College: The scene echoes a limerick written by Professor Harvey L. Professor Frink’s idea worked, because he correctly realized that declaring an exact value for π would stun an audience of geeks into silence. Some order, please, with the eyes forward … and the hands neatly folded … and the paying of attention … Pi is exactly three!” Frustrated and desperate, Frink eventually calls out: “Scientists … Scientists, please! I’m looking for some order. It is Frink’s responsibility to introduce Lisa, but the atmosphere is so intense and the audience so excitable that he struggles to bring the conference to order. The conference is hosted by John Nerdelbaum Frink Jr., Springfield’s favorite absentminded professor. The plot of this episode culminates with Lisa ready to deliver a research paper (“Airborne Pheromones and Aggression in Bullies”) at the 12th Annual Big Science Thing. There are at least ten π references in “The Simpsons”, and here are my top three favourites, in reverse order: 3. π, of course, falls into this category, because everyone learns about it in school. However, if the mathematical reference is not particularly obscure, then it can be included at the heart of the action, and can even be included in the actual dialogue. To temper their nerdy enthusiasm, the general rule was that they could include as much mathematics as they fancied, as long as it was well hidden or only visible for a fraction of a second (a so-called freeze-frame gag). ![]() Look carefully at various episodes, you will spot everything from Fermat’s last theorem to the Riemann hypothesis, from the P v NP conjecture to Zorn’s lemma.Īll these references are embedded in the show, because many of the writers have mathematical backgrounds. In “The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets”, I documented all the mathematical references hidden in the world’s favourite TV show. You're reading: Irregulars π and The Simpsons ![]()
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